The Trump Plaza Chicken Coop

6 x 12 coop, built in 8 days with the help of my 13 yr old son and my Father-in Law

When I first started doing research on our new coop I spent a great deal of time on BYC looking for ideas and suggestions. I owe a great deal of credit to the following coop's as they formed the basis of my plans.

Day 1 We laid the foundation and added the crush stone
and added few sheet of chicken wire below the stone
for unwanted critters trying to dig under the coop

We also started framing, got most of the framing done in one
day

I was very proud of my 13 yr old son, who really gave it his all and
he wanted to screw every screw he could, he really wanted to
play with the drill!

He even learned a bit about leveling and ensuring everything
was nice and straight

He had the drill again, I had a hard time keeping him away
from the drill, but he laid into it pretty good

Day 2 We got a lot more of the framing done, my father-in law
knocked out the roof frame and my son and I worked on
the hen house floor frame

My father-in law is a mad man when it comes to wood. I am
pretty good, but he is great I guess that comes with age.

Getting ready to put the last board on the roof frame

Getting started on the roof, we decide on a metal roof

Actually pretty easy to install

She was ready to get in her new home

They are ready for their new home also, be patient!

Day 3 Roof finished, my son again had the drill, he screwed every screw
in the roof. Every time we looked for the drills he had them.

Day 4 Finished up the interior with the floor, walls and coop
roost along with some wiring of my automatic door

Day 5 We installed all chicken wire along with building doors,
windows and finished installing doors, that was a task.Day 6 Finished framing out the nest boxes after installing them

Day 7 Went through and did a lot of fine tuning and got my
new door opener installed and set, no more early mornings.
I had to thank my wife for that, she was happy for me!

Day 8 There was a lot of fine tuning and moved in all of the sand
for the coop floor, built the ramp and added all of the door
hardware along with the window hardware

Rear of the coop picture

Nest boxes actually came out pretty nice, very roomy!

I used the remainder of the sand around the coop, just
so we wouldn't have to walk through mud to get the eggs.I had a moment of clarity and it hit me I was done, well for
the most part good enough to get the girls in and I still had a few
more things I want to do when time permits.

I think all in all it came together pretty good, so I sealed it
to keep the original color, we didn't want to paint or stain it, so I
used a clear coat.
Well the Dozier's hope you like it, we can tell our girls like it!

-Thank you to my father-in law and my son, they were a big
help.

Added changes since the build

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5 Gallon Bucket Waterering systems that works great

1/2 line comes in off the valve that is gravity fed to the cups
they are constantly filled and they shut off automatically by the
yellow float

3 cups are more than enough for the girls, they always
have clean fresh water.

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Hi All, I haven't had a chance to update you all on a few things I added to my coop since my build. I would like to point out that the automatic chicken door was a great add to the coop, although I did have one morning where the door did not open and it turned out I had a bad motor, that was around August or so, but I contacted the guys as chickendoor.com and they gave me a choice to send the entire door back and they would replace the motor or they could ship me the motor and I could replace it. I chose to replace it myself, it took about 25 minutes or so and it was really easy to do, the motor and shipping was on them of course. They wanted my old motor for research, so they covered the return shipping on that also. I have also added power to my coop professionally done of course and now my battery is a back up just in case we loose power the door will still operate and the addition of power has it benefits I use the Farm Innovator heat rings for my 5 gallon water bucket attached to the watering system I put together for the girls, which is a plus no frozen water in the morning. I will add a couple of pictures of the waterer. Enjoy!

Yes, that's a 12v riding mower battery being trickle charged by a 1.5w solar panel. The battery operates the automatic coop door. I don't have power down in that part of my yard, but soon will and I will replace the solar panel with a battery tender to keep it charged, but keep the battery as a back-up power source, just in case we lose power. Thanks for the compliment and good luck with your build.

I am very interested in Day 4 photo. Is that a battery in upper left? I had no thought of this option. What do you run off the battery? How often are you thinking you will have to charge or replace it?
Wonderful coop. Will be looking at this feed often when building mine.
Thanks for sharing your hard work.

Thank you, Melliott and Stumpy I guess I wanted something nice and I went for it. We kinda think our backyard is our oasis, we have spent a lot of time getting our yard and pool to look nice with the landscaping and deck. I really wanted to look down in the back while in the pool and say that's nice. I think we accomplished that. My son really helped out, way more than I thought he would, it was spring break for him and he helped everyday except the last day. I told him to hang out and play XBOX 360 all day. LOL!

Our coops are very similar in design but I think yours came out much nicer. We didnt use a foundation on ours and there is plenty of other small things I would change if/when I build the next one. Im going to save this page for future reference. Very nice....good job.